Will Hurricane Sandy Convince Congress To Form a U.S. Weather Commission?

During a congressional briefing last month, representatives from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which represents nearly 80 American universities, urged the creation of a U.S. weather commission. Such a commission, the meteorologists say, would help Congress identify spending priorities, call attention to problems, and help minimize the economic and human toll from major weather events. (Like, say, Hurricane Sandy.) It would also help the disparate organizations that make up the weather community—like universities, private companies, and government agencies—better communicate with one another.

In an email, Thomas Bogdan, the president of UCAR, said that an in-place weather commission might not necessarily have changed anything about Hurricane Sandy. But, he adds, “A commission could examine the weather community’s handling of Sandy and weigh in on what went well and what needs to be improved in order to better safeguard vulnerable communities and critical infrastructure from the next major storm.” Events like Sandy “demonstrate the extent to which our nation is vulnerable to weather events and the need to better coordinate our research and forecasting work to make our country more resilient to such events.”

However, he cautions against focusing too much on the big storms: “[E]ven day-to-day variations in the weather have an annual estimated economic impact of nearly $500 billion each year.”